South Sudan head coach Royal Ivey could not hold back his emotions after his squad achieved a historic first-ever Olympic berth for being the highest-ranked African team in the FIBA World Cup.
“I’m speechless right now to be quite honest. It’s so surreal going to the Olympics. I have nothing to say,” Ivey said as he took a long pause to shed tears of joy.
The conflict-torn nation, which gained independence 12 years ago, is heading to the Paris Olympics next year following a 101-78 win over Angola to complete a sweep of the classification round last Saturday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
South Sundan’s victory coupled with Egypt’s 86-88 loss to New Zealand sealed the milestone for the country’s basketball program founded by former National Basketball Association star Luol Deng a decade ago.
“This team is a beam of light, like (what) I keep on saying every postgame. We bring unity, camaraderie, love, and friendship to this country, and that’s what we did,” Ivey said.
“This country’s only been independent for 12 years. To do this, for Luol Deng to put this together, this is incredible. This is incredible. I take my hat off to my players because they trusted us from day one, our coaching staff,” he added.
South Sudan led by Chicago Bulls guard Carlik Jones made an amazing run in its World Cup debut.
After scoring one win in the first round — a blowout over China, the South Sudanese pushed themselves closer to their Olympic dream after crushing home squad Gilas Pilipinas last Thursday at the start of the classification phase.
Then came their glorious victory over their African rival.
“A year ago, we were practicing outside, with eagles flying around while we were practicing, and the courts were flooded,” Ivey recalled.
“To come from there, to come and play in front of these fans in the Philippines, man, I’m on cloud nine right now. It’s a great feeling. These guys work, they persevere, they listen. It’s a great feeling.”
“Kudos to my guys, because without them, we wouldn’t be standing right here. They did everything I asked them to do, and now we’re reaping the benefits. It’s a good feeling, so we got to go back to the drawing board, get better, and move this train because it’s not stopping. We’ll continue to get better.”
